The Yamuna continues to have alarmingly high levels of ammonia, despite a dip in the coliform levels over the last two years.
While the prescribed coliform limit ought to be 5,000 most probable number (MPN) per 100 millilitres (ml) water, The Yamuna’s coliform levels varied between 20 lakh MPN/100 ml and 2.37 crore MPN/100 ml water in 2014-15. This was, however, better than the 2013-14 levels that showed this figure climb to 5.4 crore MPN/100 ml water.
In its latest affidavit to the Supreme Court, the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), which submitted a report on its latest findings recorded over the past one year (November 2014 to October 2015), said that the health of the river continues to be a concern even though a slight improvement was seen in the coliform levels that indicates presence of untreated waste in water.
Adding to the problem, the CPCB report filed by advocate Vijay Panjwani pointed out that in the Chhath Puja months of October-November when thousands of devotees took the holy dip in the Yamuna, the river witnessed excessively high levels of ammonia in water samples taken from Nizamuddin.
At a given point of time, the optimum ammonia level in the water meant for bathing or sustaining aquatic life must touch a maximum of 1.2 mg/litre.
But the CPCB study of the water sample collected at Nizamuddin on November 13, 2014 showed ammonia level of almost 12 mg/l which increased to 17.2 mg/l by February 2015. On October 14, 2015, when the last recording was made, still a month away from Chhatt Puja, the ammonia level touched 12.9 mg/l. At Kalindi Kunj too where the water sample was tested, ammonia concentration in water increased from 7.6 mg/l in November 2014 to 24.7 mg/l in February 2015 and settled at 11.3 mg/l in October 2015.
According to experts, high level of ammonia not only produces a bad odour in the water but also results in severe skin ailments and skin burning. This may attribute sufficient cause to explain why many devotees who dared to take a dip in the polluted Yamuna on Chhatt complained of skin rashes.
Interestingly, at the entry point into the Capital at Palla, the river met the desired levels of dissolved oxygen (DO) and bio-chemical oxygen demand (BOD) limits but continued to deteriorate at the remaining points at Nizamuddin, Kalindi Kunj, Okhla (after meeting of Shahdara drain) and Madanpur Khadar along the river’s 22-kilometre stretch in the Capital.
Compiling the data, the CPCB presented its findings to the apex court which is monitoring the condition of the river in a PIl for past two decades. Comparing the data of 2013-14 with 2014-15, the report prepared by one Pratima Akolkar, Scientist ‘E’ of CPCB came to the conclusion that at Nizamuddin and Kalindi Kunj, average of 12 rounds monitoring of water quality showed “more violation of ammonia standard” and overall “deterioration in water quality” in terms of BOD and DO levels. At Madanpur Khadar, the overall levels showed a dip in pollution that made the water fit for irrigation purpose.
On the 23 drains dumping sewage and waste into the river, the board noticed that nature of pollution in drains was mainly due to bio-degradable waste and not much due to non-bio degradable waste.